The US International Trade Commission will investigate patent claims made against Apple by Elan Microelectronics, which claims that Apple's products infringe on its touchscreen technology.

Elan said that Apple's iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, MacBook and Magic Mouse violate its patent No. 5,825,352, which covers "touch-sensitive input devices with the ability to detect the simultaneous presence of two or more fingers". Elan launched a patent against Apple last month over its claims, and has separately asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to forbid Apple from importing all five devices into the US.

The ITC agreed that the complaint warrants an investigation, but said it "has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case".